Valve bag filling spout means



Aug. 5, 1941. R. P. BUSHMAN VALVE BAG FILLING SPOUT MEANS 7 Filed Oct.:51, 1959 m w m f 7%; W W ATTORNEY;

Patented Aug. 5, 1941 ior ms verve. BAGFILLING sPou'r Robert 1P]Bushman, Allentownfila; assignor -to Modern Valve-Bag lIom-pany, 5Allentown, -"Pa., .;a. corporationiof. Delaware 7 'Ap'pIicatienOct'obers1, i'939;.seria1No:s02,ts1

' 5 Claims. (craze-4's) Thisdnvention' relates to a new .anduseful imwhen Ithedevice.is..attached,..or.. cloth bags, whemln l itis removed.

"The valve bags used on the machine are entirelyclosed except for. aclose .fitting. valve opening. into whichthelfillingspout. is'. inserted.for'in- ..troduction.o .mater'ialinto"thebags. LThe .mate- 1,5 Lrialis'.fedinto" .thebag'slat: a relativelylhi'gh veloc- .ity' to. attainithe'.desired. speed. oro eraaon, and, dueto Ithe -f eed.impeller..action,becomes admixed with -air; I.he-noe.- a substantial volume. or air. is'introduoed .into '.the .bags an .ther'efrom .duringLthefillingoperation. -iWhen .porous' bags, such as .I cloth. or fabric, arebeing filld this air can. readily escape byfiltering v-th1-'ough...thetexture 'of the bagsl'themselves.

.' Since. .this..filtering.- action removes. substantially 5:3 1

all .of .thedustlfromlthe. escaping air, it .is 'desir'able to have theair pass out through the-walls ofporousbags. rather than. escapearoundthe .Ifilling. spout. by means on 'thevalve opening,v for.theLl'atten meansof. escape would allow a; great quantity... l-dust'lto? be. exhausted along with the .ai-r. It .is, '.therefore,advantageous to assure that .'thevalve.wallsoffthe cloth bags fittightly around the outer .--su'rface-of the? filling spout. In any.event, Icloth-lbags' haveall beenmade w openings wl'iich-areoffjustthev proper size for insertionover' the. conventional spout; and sincellthese lbagsuare repeatedly .used, .present filling .machineamust' bevcapable of handling them.

It ofterihappens, however,3that machines'use =for.filling1 ..'cloth bagsare also desired to be .used iOLfilllng. bags made of. relatively airimperviousrmaterial such as'paper or theJike coated or impr'egnated'with asphalt, .from which the. en- ..trainediair must escape through.the'slight s between .theffilling. spout. .and bag valve .open-'...ing. .lAlongwithi this air necessarily goes an.appreciable amount ofsuspendedpulverulent ma- A terial, scsthat the resultant dustis notonly. ob-

noxious and..highly injurious to the health of. the 50 "t operatorsbut...is .ldetrimental to the maintenanceofithermachine soils theoutside ofthe-bags, andis wastefulinlthe loss of. material.

:-:I nthe past; to overcome! thisldi'fiiculty. .when fillingimperviousprovidedwithexternal ribs or other means. (such j .asdisclosedin the. copending application: offFritz W. Haver,.Ser.-No...i240,891, filed! November 17, (1938) whichjdilatejthe wallsof the bag valve and .preventthemifromiformin a sealing con-.ta-ctwiththe' exterior surface of the filling'spout. Qsuction'. andfdust recovering means have also ..been.provided. inrconjun'ction with.these Valve ..di 1ati ng;means.-.So as to entrap the escaping air anddust. .TWhile such a device is'very. satisfac- .toryfforfilling.paperand the like bags,it is very disadvantageous, for the reasonsalready stated, .whenused with cloth or porous bags, andin order to.provide' an economically. satisfactory device tor.,selectiveuse. of,both and paperbags it is .necessarythat/the operation of. the machinebe .not' interrupted for. any appreciable time. In other words, the airimpervious bags are provided with v'alve openingslarger thanth'ose. of.the cloth dmustbeexpelled ziaf bags and are -thus adapted toaccommodatethe dilating means in addition to; the: normal spoutdiameter; while the 'clothibags are only adapted for the normalspout'diameten. Accordingly, in

. order for. a given machine to fill both types of "bags, it' is.necessary to .have 'two' forms" of filling spout means, and desirable.to. have a rapid transformationLfrom one to the other.

It is the. object of this invention, therefore, to provide a.bagfil1ingmachine'which may be eas- ,3o .ily andrapidly altered for the selectiveuseof paper or cloth bags" as desired. It is a further object. of. theinvention to provide acomposite .spoutstructure adapted for thispurpose'and so constructed and arranged that it may be proith valve 35 duce'dat' a small. cost and withstand long use without rep air.

f The invention consists in the novel features, arrangements andcombination of parts embodied by way oi'example in the apparatushereinafter d 40 described as illustrating the preferred form'of theinvention, and the invention will be more particularly pointed outintheappended claims.

Further'objects and advantages of the invention will more fully appearfrom the following pace 45.. descriptionv taken in connection with theaccom- 5 panying drawing, which shows, by way of exambags,thefillingspouthas' been ple, the-preferred embodiment of the invention.Referring to the'drawing in which the same reference. charactersindicate the same parts in he various views: "Figs. 1 and 2.are,.respectively, a side elevation and an end elevation ofthecomposite fillingspout structure embodying thenovel features ofmy..inv.ention,and

LFig. 3, is .a cross-sectional view taken at 3-3 of Fig. 1 showing inmore detail the manner of attachment of the component parts of saidstructure.

In the drawing above briefly described, the numeral l denotes aconventional type of filling spout towards the inner end of which thereis a circular flange 2, by means of which the spout is fastened to themachine by bolts passing through each of the holes 3 in the flange andinto a plate (not shown). The remainder of the machine is of thewell-known type and need not be described herein. When in fillingposition, the extreme inner end 4 of the spout is in alignedcommunication with a feed throat from which the pulverulent material isdischarged into the bore 5 of the spout.

Attached beneath the spout l and towards the inner end thereof is aspacing member in the form of a shield or trough designated in its en-'tirety by the numeral 6. When the spout and spacing member are insertedinto a bag, the bag valve fits snugly and surrounds them, the exteriorend of the valve extending practically to the flange 2, thus coveringthe openings 1, and the sides and bottom of the spacing member 6. Thisshield thus surrounding the lower portion of the spout extends up to theflange 2 and has a downwardly extending tongue 8 which protrudes througha cut-out portion 9 of the flange. Thus the shield in conjunction withthe spout defines a passageway Hi through which air and dust entrappedwithin the bag may be exhausted by suction means (not shown)communicating with the passageway IE] exterior the flanged cut-out 9.The member 6 is preferably imperforate throughout the portion betweenthe rear holes I and plate 2, to thus provide a restricted passageway atthe point where the member passes out of the bag being filled. Theopenings I provide a means for removing any dust which may remain withinthe passageway I!) after the filled bag .is removed.

The method of attaching the shield to the spout is shown in Figs. 2 and3 of the drawing, in which the convex inwardly directed beads ll formedon the longitudinally extending trough edges of the shield fit into thecooperating concave grooves I2 which extend longitudinally along and onoppositely disposed sides of the spout. Due to the partially resilientnature of the material, such as steel, from which the shield is formed,it may be readily and instantaneously forced upward against the spoutuntil the beads II resiliently snap into their respective grooves l2which they grip with sumcient firmness to prevent them from becomingaccidentally dislodged during the regular operation of the machine. Itis obvious that the longitudinally disposed attaching means need not becontinuous (though preferably so) but may be interrupted, i. e., insteadof a continuous convex bead l! and cooperating concave recess 12, aplurality of longitudinally disposed protuberances and cooperatingrecesses may be employed.

Whenever it is desirable to use the spout alone, as when filling porousbags, this resilient method of attachment permits the shield to beeasily and rapidly removed by applying a downward pressure thereto. Thisingenious method of attachment enables the device to be automaticallylocked in place below the spout by merely pressing it on, no otheradjustments being required; or in the alternative it may be dispensedwith by reversing the direction and pressure which causes it to snapaway from the spout. Also the construction and arrangement of the partsare such that rapid and economic manufacture is permitted andsubstantially no upkeep service is required.

Having thus described my invention with particularity with reference toa preferred embodiment of the same, it will be obvious to those skilledin the art, after understanding my invention, that changes andmodifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention, and I aim in the appended claims to cover suchchanges and modifications as are within the scope of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. In a valve bag filling machine for feeding pulverulent material intoa valve bag, the combination of a horizontally disposed filling spoutfor receiving a paper or like bag to be filled, and valve spacing meanscomprising laterally spaced longitudinally disposed attachment meansdetachably securing said valve spacing means to the spout alonglaterally spaced longitudinally disposed portions thereof, said valvespacing means having an imperforate rear portion positioned beneath andsurrounding a portion only of the periphery of the spout adjacent themouth the the bag being filled so as to provide a passageway defined bythe lower portion of said spout and said spacing means and serving wheninserted into the valve of a bag to maintain the valve in spacedrelationship away from the lower portion of the spout area lyingperipherally adjacent thereto.

2. In a valve bag filling machine for feeding pulverulent material intoa valve bag, the combination of a filling spout for receiving a paper orlike bag to be filled, and valve spacing means positioned longitudinallyalong the spout and surrounding a portion only of the periphery of saidspout, said spacing means and said spout being so constructed andarranged as to provide a conduit therebetween for directing materialvented therethrough rearwardly at a restricted discharge zone,longitudinally extending laterally spaced cooperative securing meansformed respectively on the spout and on the valve spacing means soconstructed and arranged that the latter resiliently grips the former.

3. The combination of a horizontally disposed filling spout member forinsertion into the valve of a bag to be filled, a removable elongatedshield member having a bottom, sides and an open top providinglongitudinally extending upper edges attached to said spout surroundingand spaced from a lower peripheral portion thereof, said shield memberin conjunction with said lower peripheral spout member portion being soconstructed and arranged as to define a passageway adjacent said spoutmember for conducting air and dust from out the bag at a restricteddischarge zone beneath said spout, cooperative locking means locatedrespectively along oppositely disposed longitudinal portions of thespout member and along the longitudinal upper edges of the shieldmember, said locking means comprising a set of oppositely disposedtongue portions on one of said members resiliently held into engagementwith a corresponding set of groove portions in the other of saidmembers.

4. In a valve bag filling machine for feeding pulverulent material intoa valve bag, the combination of a filling spout for receiving a paper orlike bag to be filled, a longitudinally extending shield like memberhaving a bottom, sides and an open top providing longitudinallyextending upper edges attached to said spout at either side and saidmember encircling the lower-peripheral portion thereof so as to definebetween said spout and shield an exhaust conduit through which dust andair in the bag may escape, locking means located on said spout and onthe said upper edges of said shield for frictional engagement with eachother, and means formed in said shield for venting the lower walls ofthe bag valve.

5. In a device of the character described, the combination of a fillingspout for insertion into the valve of a bag to be filled, and aremovable shield attached to said spout to define a venting passagebetween the respectively adjacent walls of said spout and shield, saidshield being in the general shape of a trough providing spaced apartlongitudinal edges having cooperative engaging means for snap-onengagement with said spout, said spout being provided along oppositesides with longitudinally disposed means for cooperative engagement withsaid means provided on the longitudinal edges of said shield, wherebysaid shield may be readily and quickly secured to and removed from saidspout to thereby permit the selective use of either cloth or paper bagson the same device.

ROBERT P. BUSHMAN.

